Stefano Domenicali has resigned as team principal of Ferrari in the wake of the disappointing start to the team’s 2014 season.

He will be replaced by high flying Ferrari road car executive Marco Mattiacci, who will be in China next weekend.

Ferrari said: “On receiving Stefano Domenicali’s resignation, Ferrari thanks him for the dedication he brought to his service to the company, in positions of ever increasing responsibility over the past 23 years. It offers Stefano Domenicali its most sincere best wishes for the future.”

Mattiacci worked at Jaguar/Ford before joining Ferrari in 1999. He quickly rose up the ranks to become President and CEO of Ferrari Asia Pacific in June 2006, before taking the same role at Ferrari North America in May 2010. He is clearly highly regarded within the Ferrari camp.

Domenicali’s decision came after discussions with Luca di Montezemolo, who recently extended his own contract as Ferrari president for another three years.

Montezemolo said in a statement: “I thank Stefano Domenicali not only for his ongoing contribution and commitment, but for the great sense of responsibility that has demonstrated today by putting the interest of the Ferrari ahead of his own.”

The 48-year-old Domenicali joined the company in 1991 on the administration side. He became F1 team manager in 1997 and later had the title of sporting director, before he followed Jean Todt into the team principal role.

Domenicali’s future is not year clear, although he is highly respected in the motor sport world and would have little trouble finding a new role. He has been linked with Audi in the past.

I love it!! Back to the Maranello of old. Just a few races into a poor start to a season and they sack the team principal. They did that back in the day to Cesear Fiorrio and followed up sacking Prost, only to be followed by more years in the wilderness.

After all of those seasons of stability and continuity under Todt/Brawn they go back to their old habits. Has management forgotten the drought from 1996-2000 when Ferrari and Schui all pulled together……for 5 seasons without a title?

Peter, do you even watch F1? Instability of yesteryear? Ferrari for the last 17 years has had two team principles, because Domenicali is dismissed does not mean a return to the good old days, but just a change which was felt necessary. I sometimes wonder how McLaren tinted some people’s vision is…

Fine, I stand corrected (groan)……when will Luca be resigning, he has been there the longest, overseeing both Todt and Dominicali.

The point I was making was that it’s a bit early in 2014 to call for the guys scalp. Ferrari’s past success through the whole Schui era, and beyond, was based on stability and continuity. Between 99 and 2008 they win 7 constructors titles.

Lovely man, but not a surprise after Bahrain. The buck stops with him after that mortifying display. Luca is president of the whole of Ferrari and doesn’t do the day to day oversight of the F1 team so getting rid of him would have had no impact on the race team. And clearly they need shaking up. Plenty of unemployed TD’s going cheap if Mattiacci doesn’t work out!

I suspect Mattiacci won’t be Team Principal very long, he doesn’t have much experience, but is the highest ranking person in the company to be moved laterally into that position. By the gossip from Maranello Luca didn’t want Domenicali to resign, so they needed someone quick, hence the Mattiacci placement. I suspect that de Montezemolo and Co. are searching for an experienced man or woman to truly fill the position, and when they do Mattiacci will be gone.

Except… you don’t haul back a guy based in the States in a senior role who seems to be on the fast track for the top job just for some temporary gig. And frankly if it was temporary he probably wouldn’t have taken it. This also disrupts the US business. The stopgap measure is that you just have someone else in the team be an acting head for a while. Maybe Luca has decided that the sporting team needs a good manager to shake the place up and has no emotional ties to anyone for hiring and firing. And this guy does seem to be very able.

When I see all this comments, Montezemolo praising Domenicalli for this and that, Domenicalli, doing viceversas, thanking each other and showing how much they love each other, all of a suddenI think in the end of a boxing match, two parties in blood, beatten up, hairs in a mess and….embrazing each other!! acknowledging each other.

Ceej; I did not mean to disparage Mr. Mattiacci, he is a good man, but he has no F-1 experience. Perhaps he will be useful in bringing a set of eyes to the Scuderia that are not clouded by familiarity, but I seriously doubt he is going to be the full time team boss. What I mean by ‘temporary’ in this case means the rest of the 2014 season. Anyone who might be hired for the Team Principal position (other than a promotion within Ferrari) from another team would have to be on gardener’s leave. For instance Bob Bell is now available, and worth a look since he worked with Alonso when he was at Renault, but even if Bell was signed with Ferrari today, he couldn’t go to work for them until October or November. Gerhardt Berger and Ross Brawn’s names are being tossed about in the rumor mill as well, so who knows which direction it will go. I wish Stefano well and hope he stays in F-1, and I hope we see Ferrari show some improvement in performance.